Hebrew word · H5195

נָטִיעַ

kinti'im

plant

נָטִיעַ (only here) comes from נָטַע, 'to plant'. The related noun נֶטַע means a planting or plant (Isa 5:7, Israel as the 'planting' God delights in). גָּדַל means 'to become great, grow up'. Its intensive forms mean 'to make great, rear, bring up' (children, Isa 1:2; 2 Kgs 10:6; hair, Num 6:5).

Appears once in the Hebrew Old Testament. ·

What it means

plant (fig. of vigorous sons)

Abridged from Brown, Driver and Briggs, A Hebrew and English Lexicon of the Old Testament (1906), via STEPBible.org (CC BY 4.0).

In depth

From the study of Psalm 144:12

Range of meaning

נָטִיעַ (only here) comes from נָטַע, 'to plant'. The related noun נֶטַע means a planting or plant (Isa 5:7, Israel as the 'planting' God delights in). גָּדַל means 'to become great, grow up'. Its intensive forms mean 'to make great, rear, bring up' (children, Isa 1:2; 2 Kgs 10:6; hair, Num 6:5). The passive participle here means 'made big, raised'.

Against the English

KJV 'plants grown up' and ESV 'plants full grown' stress the end result. BSB 'nurtured' and WEB/NIV 'well-nurtured' stress the care. The Hebrew passive holds both: plants that have been raised and so have grown tall.

Used elsewhere in the period

Plant imagery for offspring is standard: Ps 128:3 ('your children like olive shoots around your table'), Isa 61:3 ('oaks of righteousness, the planting of the LORD'), Isa 5:7. The overlap of 'grow' and 'rear children' in גדל is attested across Biblical Hebrew. The Septuagint renders the phrase 'young plantings firmly established'.

Where it appears

Psalms · 1

  1. Psalm 144:12 כִּנְטִעִים֮ [will be] like plants

    Then our sons will be like plants nurtured in their youth, our daughters like corner pillars carved to adorn a palace.

    Here: 'Like saplings', young plants deliberately set in the ground (from נָטַע, to plant). This exact noun appears only here. The picture is of cultivated, rooted young growth, not wild shoots.

Word data: STEPBible.org (CC BY 4.0), main text only.